Rights Center: An officer in Muthanna’s traffic police sues a journalist and the center provides a defense team

13/03/2019 01:46
Statement
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The Iraqi Center for Supporting Freedom of Speech (Rights) rejects repeated attempts to prosecute and silence the voices of journalists through the filing of lawsuits to restricting their work, the latest of which happened with the editor of the Warka News Agency, Ali Jiachi, who faces a lawsuit, he will appear in Muthanna Misdemeanors Court on Thursday (February 28, 2019) following a complaint filed by an officer in Al- Muthanna’s traffic police on the background of a publication on Facebook.
While the Iraqi Center (Rights) is confident of justice and respect for judicial decisions, it calls on officials to respect freedom of expression and invest constructive criticism to evaluate the work of government institutions.
At this point the Iraqi Center (Rights), asks the General Traffic Manager, Major General Amer Al-Azzawi, and the Director of Muthanna Traffic, Brigadier Abdull Amir Al-Rikabi, to withdraw the complaint against the editor of the Warka News Agency, because he just has done his work in the freedom of criticism through the social communication platform, with the aim of correcting and not demolishing.
The Iraqi Center (Rights) promises to provide a legal defense team to the editor of Warka news agency Ali Jiyashi to respond to allegations by an officer of the Muthanna Traffic Directorate.
“That he was subjected to a lawsuit filed by an officer in the Directorate of Traffic Muthanna, because of a publication in Facebook, indicating that an abnormal situation was detected by a traffic officer to cut tickets fines against the owners of parked cars in Cinema Street suddenly and without warning” the editor of Warka news agency Ali Jiyashi, told the Iraqi Center (Rights) about that.
“The street does not contain traffic signs warning to prevent parking in all long street from its intersection with Corniche Street to the building of Al- Hawza on the other side, which made me exercise my profession and highlight the situation in order to alert the concerned authorities” Al- Jaiashy added.